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Trooper faces 13 additional charges

Michael K. Evans, 32, of Pottstown, also used his uniform and badge to coerce two other women to help him gratify his own sexual desires, according to court papers filed yesterday.

Evans was arraigned on these latest 13 charges, ranging from official oppression to indecent assault and indecent exposure to open lewdness, yesterday afternoon before Norristown District Justice Francis J. Lawrence Jr.

A relaxed-appearing Evans, wearing a brown suit, leg manacles and hand manacles strapped around his waist with a large brown belt, was led into the courtroom by two county detectives.

His girlfriend, sitting in the courtroom with two other friends, touched him lightly on the arm and smiled as the pair exchanged greetings.

Evans sat silently but intently listening as Lawrence informed him of this latest set of charges against him and set a preliminary hearing date of April 18. As he waited for the paperwork to be completed before he was returned to prison, Evans chatted with his girlfriend and friends, occasionally smiling at a whispered remark.

Acting on the request of county District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr., Lawrence set Evans' bail on these charges at $500,000, bringing the total bail to $1 million.

Evans, who was first arrested on Feb. 15 for inappropriate sexual conduct with three teenage girls while on duty between July 1997 and September 1999, has been in the county prison since his arrest in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Evans, who was assigned to the state police barracks in Skippack, first came into contact with the 30-year-old Worcester woman in July 1990 when he was dispatched to respond to an attempted suicide.The woman, who was seven months pregnant, apparently tried to kill herself by overdosing on cocaine but was stopped by a friend who called 911, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Initially taken to Mercy Suburban Hospital, the woman was later moved to Montgomery Hospital in Norristown.

According to court records, a uniformed Evans visited the woman at Montgomery Hospital, telling the hospital staff he needed to speak to the woman alone. During that visit, he promised to search for the woman's stolen car but then asked the woman what she could do for him, according to the affidavit.Evans then engaged in sexual misconduct with the woman - touching her breasts and masturbating - while telling her he appreciated her "co-operation," the affidavit says.

The woman told law enforcement officials she did not resist Evan's sexual behavior "because she was fearful that she would get in trouble or be hurt."

After the woman was released from the hospital, Evans one day turned up at her house, saying he had come to talk about the car, the affidavit says.He allegedly told the woman that, if she wanted him to continue looking for her car, he would need another favor, according to the affidavit.

When told that she did not want "to do this," Evans told her that he would "find a way to make it hard for her and that she could lose her unborn baby and her house," the affidavit states.

"By threatening to use his police authority to take her baby away, he forced her to submit to his sexual desires," detectives state in the affidavit. "By promising to help her find her car in exchange for her submission to sexual acts with him, he perverted his authority as a police officer."

In another case for which he was charged yesterday, Evans allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct with a 33-year-old Upper Salford woman whose male friend was driving her car and led police on a high-speed chase from Perkiomen through Lower Frederick to Limerick.

The woman declined to give police a statement, telling Evans that her friend was the only person who had protected her from her husband and that she now had to protect him.

Impounding the woman's car, Evans took the woman to her residence where he allegedly sexually assaulted her, the affidavit says.

The male friend was charged with violations of the drug laws, fleeing and eluding a police officer and multiple motor vehicle violations. However, Evans attended the man's preliminary hearing at which time he reduced the most serious charges against him to a summary offense of disorderly conduct to which the man pleaded guilty and was fined.

The third alleged victim came into contact with Evans in September 1998 when she went to Pottstown Memorial Hospital after her boyfriend beat her.

When she subsequently went to the Skippack barracks to register a protection from abuse order she had secured against her boyfriend, Evans allegedly told her that "he never saw anyone like me before and told me that my breasts were so huge and asked if they were naturally mine." He would call her periodically over the next few months, asking her how she was doing while also asking questions of a personal nature, according to the affidavit.

After appearing in behalf of the woman at a protection from abuse hearing at the county courthouse, Evans directed the woman to meet with him near a factory somewhere near the Skippack barracks where he engaged in sexual misconduct with the woman, the affidavit says.

The following day, he directed her to privately meet again with him, this time in Schwenksville.

At this meeting, Evans "told her that he was the only one who could protect her from her abusive ex-boyfriend.He told her that no other troopers could help her, she could only call him. He promised to protect her from her abuser as long as she did what he wanted," the affidavit says. Once again, he engaged in sexual misconduct with the woman, according to the affidavit.

The woman subsequently saw Evans on a regular basis over the next several months, engaging in a sexual relationship with him, the affidavit says.

"She believed that the only way she would be safe was to have sex with Evans," the affidavit says, claiming the woman agreed to the exchange of sexual favors for her own protection, safety and personal security.

These last two women were identified as confidential informants in the initial affidavit concerning similar charges alleged by the three teenage girls.

Yesterday's affidavit also contained information from three additional confidential informants to bolster and corroborate the information from the three named victims.

All three, including one who is employed by the county, report episodes of sexual misconduct by Evans.

Because of a temporary gag order issued by county President Judge Joseph A, Smyth at the request of defense attorney Marc R. Steinberg, none of those involved in the case would comment after the arraignment.